Sunday, March 2, 2014Morning report: Yaz, the next generation
By Gordon Edes

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Good morning from the Fort, where the good news for New Englanders battered by this ridiculous winter is that they will get to lay eyes on the Boys of Spring for the first time Sunday. NESN is televising the game between the Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles and yes, Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy are in the house.

An added attraction Sunday is Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of the Red Sox Hall of Famer, who is on the Orioles’ traveling squad for the game. The younger Yastrzemski was a 14th-round draft pick last June out of Vanderbilt. The Sox drafted him out of high school in 2009 in the 36th round, but he elected to go to college, where he was 2013 All-SEC and named the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Nashville Regional.

He made his pro debut last summer in Aberdeen in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League and more than held his own, posting a .273/.362/.420/.782 slash line.

Felix Doubront, coming off a winter in which he spent seven weeks working out at the IMG facility in Sarasota, makes his first start of the spring on Sunday. He becomes the first member of last year’s rotation to make an appearance this spring, as manager John Farrell said he planned to hold back the starters on one turn through.

Orioles third baseman Almanzar is a former Sox prospect who played for Double-A Portland last season and was taken by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft. If the Orioles do not keep him on their major-league roster, they have to offer him back to the Sox.